Seven richest Aussies equal bottom 20%

The combined wealth of Australia's seven richest people is greater than the poorest 1.73 million households, new figures show.

And the Australia Institute warns policies being adopted by the federal government are likely to widen the gap between the extremely wealthy and the nation's poorest.

The institute's paper, Income and Wealth Inequality in Australia, reveals how a reduction over time of the top marginal income tax rate has helped the rich get richer and "widened the disparity between wealth and incomes in Australia", Fairfax Media reports.

The nation's seven richest people are Gina Rinehart whose wealth is estimated at $22 billion, Frank Lowy ($6.87 billion), James Packer ($6 billion), Anthony Pratt & Family ($5.95 billion), Ivan Glasenberg ($5.61 billion), Harry Triguboff ($4.95 billion) and Wing Mau Hui ($4.82 billion), for a total worth of $56.2 billion, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

In comparison, the figures reveal the lowest 20 per cent of households own about $54 billion.

In an attack on the Abbott government's proposed budget cuts targeting low-income families, the institute's report suggests the gap between rich and poor will grow if payments to low-income families are reduced further.

However, the institute's paper said tax cuts introduced by governments in the past eight years had contributed to the wealth divide, with the top 10 per cent of earners benefiting more than the bottom 80 per cent of taxpayers.